Counted Days
by TPKTheStoicTPK
Summary: A collection of unrelated, unthemed, GinxRan oneshots. Rated T for possible future content.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach

Poisoning

To her it was a magical moment on a magical night. A night where what had been trapped inside her, confused and unidentified, was given a name and set free.

He remembers no magic. He remembers it more as a night of bondage more than freedom

But both remember it vividly. Every second of the night burned into their mind. Every star in the sky, forever etched into their memory. Every sight and sound was a memory shared between the two for all eternity. But that is only ever half the story. For how can you share things that weren't, that couldn't, be said. How can you share things seen with closed eyes. They had seen only each other, but their minds could only be heard by themselves.

The soft grass trembled in the slight breeze, brushing against her skin and causing slight tingles as the blades carresed her form. The moon was full and slowly rising up the horizon as the hues of the world darkened and the sun finally fell over the horizon.

The moon crawled through the sky as the minutes passed, the night insects giving it a welcoming fanfare. It's friendly visage a welcome sight as she lay there and attempted to occupy herself.

It wasn't until she heard a rustle in the grass close by that she sat up. She stood up and adjusted her cloths. The night air was cold and she had little on but rags. It is sad to think that she is used to it and likely always would be. She turns around and is greeted by his form.

His hair beautily reflected the light of the moon and his pale skin seemed to almost glow in the scarce light. She had always thought him beautiful but the night offered him a brilliance that she had always loved.

He had been gone for over two weeks now but she forgot all that immediately in her relief that he was back.

She looked at his face. His eyes were closed, like usual. Two slits that she both envied and hated. however today they seemed more tightly closed than usual. His face was drawn into an expression she couldn't describe. She worried slightly at his expression but kept up her happy face.

He looked right at her, right into her eyes. He then drew his mouth into an even tighter frown. She got even more worried. He practically never smiled, but whenever he saw her again his mouth would almost, almost, form a happy grin.

He approached her and she stood still. Normally she would have been at him in a heartbeat, hugging him tightly and, sometimes when he was gone for a long time, even crying into his shoulder as he reassured her. However tonight he had something on his mind and she wouldn't stop worrying until he had got rid of his burden.

It wasn't long until they were in arms length. He looked at her then suddenly scooped her into a hug. He grasped her tightly, as if afraid she would blow away or try to leave his grasp. He hugged her tight and said in his soothing voice,heavy with something she had couldn't label at that time, "I love you, Rangiku."

Love had never been a word Rangiku had been able to use. She never had anyone to love, not until he came along. When he did, a fire started in her soul, growing stronger and stronger all the time. She had never been able to name what it was, but hearing this word, she knew it was love. In that moment the fire had been freed, filling her with warmth and comfort. She hugged him back and said, "I love you too, Gin."

Her world was created that night. That moment of realization was, and will always be, everything to her. This was the magic that she will alway remember.

Less than a mile from home he puts his mask in the hollow of the tree which he kept it in. The carved face of the kitsune set into a permanently calm face, even as Gin's own emotions were thrown into chaos. He could still feel the blood on his hands, the blood which still marked the mask. He grabbed the mask from the hollow and turned it around so he woulnd't have to see the blood of the man he had just killed.

The Rukon was a place of death. Death surrounded him since birth and, no matter how hard he closed his eyes, he would always see people die in throngs around him. But this blood was the first to ever stain his own hand.

"No," he told himself, "it is the second."

All those years ago,her blood had stained his hand. As he helped her stand up blood from the pool surrounding her had painted his hands red. Never had he been able to get by that day, her blood. Now another's blood had covered his hand, shed by him for her. Though this blood would fade in time, until the day when he got back what was taken from her he would never be able to clean her blood from his hands.

However strong his resolve his emotions conflicted with each other. Guilt, sadness, anger, and then there was...

He went to where he knew she was. She heard him approach and stood up. Her smile shaking his resolve and causing further inner turmoil.

He needed something, something substantial, something which could calm the raging battle inside of him.

The need for that support took him over. Step after step he drew nearer to her until he was within reach. He swallowed her in his grasp and brought down the guillotine, "I love you," he said, voicing the one immutable truth that was the foundation of his unshakable resolve, and what controlled him to hug her with the very hands that were stained with blood but an hour ago. And even as she said "I love you too," Gin hated himself, he knew he didn't deserve her love and that his love was nothing but poison.

"If you were to turn into a snake tomorrow and begin devouring humans, and from the same mouth you started devouring humans, you cried out to me 'I love you,' would I still be able to say 'I love you' the same way I do today?"

To him, speaking these three words would always be his cruelest action.


	2. Shattered Skies

Shattered Skies

290

They rose into the sky with a trail of sparks and fire, screaming into the heavens. They shot upwards with their banzai yells but when they reached their destination in the sky far they were instantly destroyed in a ball of noise and light. A massive crack could be heard as their bodies burst into thousands of pieces, shooting off in colourful arcs radiating from the centre. But no sooner had one wave been consumed by fire than the next one rushed to take their place in a never ending stream of

Rangiku loved fireworks; this was her favorite thing about today.

She glanced over to her side as she lay in the grass, 'or maybe just my second favorite' she thought to herself as her eyes glanced at the usurper of the top spot. Gin simply gave a smile in return to her sidelong glance and held her tighter to him.

No words were said as the noise of fireworks, whizzing up to the sky and exploding, filled the air.

A cool, July breeze floated past her making her shiver. Wordlessly Gin pulled her even closer to his warm body, shielding her from the cold. His new captain's haori was soft and warm as it wrapped around her waist and pressed her head against his chest.

She had been so happy for him but, at the same time, saddened. She was in an entirely different division and now that he was a captain she knew he would no longer have any time together. Ever since they had become shinigami they had hardly been able to get any time alone together, or really together at all. She feared he was drifting away from her. Whenever he had left as a kid she knew he would come back, but if he didn't leave, they merely grew apart, would he ever return to her?

She closed her eyes and pressed her head deeper into Gin's chest. 'no' she told herself, 'it doesn't matter what changes, some things won't, this won't.'

July 16th, the day that the Gotei 13 was founded by soutaicho Yamamoto. Ever since her first year with Gin she had come to this hill with him and watched the fireworks.

She still remembered the first time.

It had been a warm summer's morning in July; the birds were chirping their songs, ushering in the sun. Rangiku was up bright and early like usual and was making breakfast. It was one of the few things she could do. Ever since Gin had found her 10 months ago, he had done everything for the both. He was the one who kept them warm, alive, and safe. She looked for ways to carry her weight, things that she could do for him. She cooked and cleaned the house and bandaged up Gin when he would come back injured by god knows what.

Troubled by these thoughts she didn't notice him rise from bed and walk over to her until his hand touched her shoulder. She looked up at him, surprised to see a genuinely happy smile spread over his face.

A smile was a rare thing in the Rukongai, amidst this terrible sea of carnage and misfortune the rarest thing to see was someone who was happy enough to smile. But Gin seemed unaffected by the hell that surrounded him, his smile an impenetrable fortress that took all that this life had to offer and simply taunted it in return, as if daring it to throw him a true challenge. However it was this taunting face, the grin that defied the very universe itself, that normally adorned his face, happiness wasn't a part of it. She had only seen him happy a few times.

"Ohayo Ran-chan," he said, using his affection nickname for her. She didn't mind it, in fact she liked it.

"Ohayo Gin," she said in return, "how are you today?"

He grinned back at her, a grin that reeked of a secret, though a playful one, and goaded her to try and guess what that secret was. "Hard question to answer, seeing as there hasn't been much to today has there?"

Deferent language, a classic with Gin but he was usually far more subtle with it. His grin widened at the quizzical look on her face as he sat down and waited for breakfast.

It proceeded like this throughout the day, with his constant reminder that he had a secret but without a hint being given to help her guess what it could be. It was around six that evening, when she decided she had had enough. She had tried ignoring it but she simply couldn't keep her curiosity reigned in anymore. She would go to him and demand he tell her.

However, when she approached him, inhaling a breath to start her tirade, He smiled at her and said, "Come with me," holding out his hand in encouragement. Taken aback by the sudden request her speech was bit back and she took his hand wordlessly.

"Follow me," he urged and she did so, more curious than ever but confident that it would be quickly sated.

She felt herself being dragged, out of the house and into the warmth of the summer day, though the light was dimming and the air was cooler now. He dragged her for what must have been half an hour when finally they got to the crest of a hill. The sun had begun its descent down past the horizon.

"Gin…" she said quietly, when no explanation came as to why he had brought her here.

"Shhhh…" he hushed her affectionately as he sat at the base of the tree on the hill and leaned against it, patting the ground beside him.

She sat next to him and waited, and waited. Minutes passed without a word from either of them. She looked at him occasionally, her face plastered with the same quizzacle expression she had been wearing all day, each time he simply smiled back at her, and the happiness of his face placated her for a while.

Suddenly it was dark, the heavens above them had gone from a palette of hues to a uniform indigo shade, dotted with white specks of light.

Suddenly a loud whistle sounded, as the blackness of the night was interrupted by a streak of red sparks, tearing through the fabric of the abyss like a sword being drawn across metal.

The streak flew up into the sky and disappeared for a short moment, only to break the silence and dark of the night with red streaks of sparks flying every which way, creating what looked like a network of cracks, as if the skies themselves had been shattered by the blast.

She turned to Gin, grinning at him happily, "Fireworks!" she exclaimed happily, tugging on his sleeve as he smiled at her, obviously glad to see his surprise well received.

The view from the top of the hill was magnificent and they watched them the rest of the night. Sometime during the show their hands had sneaked closer and closer and become intertwined, neither objected to this though.

When the show was over they had gone home, Rangiku extremely pleased with the show Gin had treated her to.

Every year since then they had done this, no matter what was happening this was a night that they would always have together. Even though he was now the Gotei 13's newest captain and she was merely a third seat, they still spent this night together, like always. This wouldn't change.

Or so she told herself, until that day.

So much had changed that day… so much she thought would never change was twisted into some new, horrible reality.

"_An abandoned cat, picked up again to be abandoned." _

" _Let it be if you're not held."_

It was the middle of winter. The War had just ended. They were victorious, though for her the victory was hollow and pyrrhic. The rest of the Gotei 13 hadn't seen any reason to mope and were in the middle of celebrations, an act she normally would have been in the middle of, was now an insult to her eyes. Especially this…

Above her was the familiar whistling of fireworks, mocking her mourning with memories of a better past, one that could never be again, a reminder of a tradition now unfulfillable.

"_Only a small bit more and you would have got me."_

"_No cure, like_

_Fuyu no Hanabi."_

Author's challenge: Find the significance of the number at the very beginning (right beneath the title) and win a prize.


End file.
